The impact of criminal victimization on the health status
of women is the focus of this data collection. The researchers
examined the extent to which victimized women differed from
nonvictimized women in terms of their physical and psychological
well-being and differences in their use of medical services. The
sample was drawn from female members of a health maintenance plan at a
worksite in Cleveland, Ohio. Questions used to measure criminal
victimization were taken from the National Crim... (more info)

The impact of criminal victimization on the health status
of women is the focus of this data collection. The researchers
examined the extent to which victimized women differed from
nonvictimized women in terms of their physical and psychological
well-being and differences in their use of medical services. The
sample was drawn from female members of a health maintenance plan at a
worksite in Cleveland, Ohio. Questions used to measure criminal
victimization were taken from the National Crime Survey and focused on
purse snatching, home burglary, attempted robbery, robbery with force,
threatened assault, and assault. In addition, specific questions
concerning rape and attempted rape were developed for the
study. Health status was assessed by using a number of instruments,
including the Cornell Medical Index, the Mental Health Index, and the
RAND Corporation test battery for their Health Insurance
Experiment. Medical service usage was assessed by reference to medical
records. Demographic information includes age, race, income, and
education.

Universe:
Adult women who were members of a health maintenance plan
at a worksite in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1986.

Data Types:
survey data, and event/transaction data

Data Collection Notes:

SPSS program files, which create new variables and
perform statistical calculations, are available.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
Crime is a major source of stress for its
victims. To the extent that stress is linked to illness, criminal
victimization may be associated with medical service usage. This study
was conducted to explore the impact of criminal victimization on the
psychological and physical well-being of women. Women were the focus
of the study in order to examine the disproportionate effects of
interpersonal violence. The study was conducted at a worksite in
Cleveland, Ohio. In order to increase the availability of complete
medical histories, participants were members of a worksite health
maintenance plan. Plan members were randomly selected and contacted by
telephone or mail to arrange interviews.

Study Design:
The study was conducted at a single worksite in
Cleveland, Ohio. To increase the availability of medical histories,
respondents were members of a worksite health maintenance plan. Data
consist of self-assessments of physical and psychological health
conducted in personal interviews and objective data collected from
medical records. To assure confidentiality, interviewers were not
employees of the health maintenance plan. Interviewers received
instruction in the interview protocol. The survey was developed using
the "Total Design Method" in order to maximize response rates.

Sample:
Two sampling methods were used. Approximately 20 percent
of the female members of the health maintenance plan were contacted by
telephone. This resulted in 194 completed personal interviews. To
augment the number of victimized women included in the sample,
screening surveys were sent to all women health plan members,
resulting in another 219 completed interviews.

Data Source:

personal interviews, and medical records

Description of Variables:
Interviews covered the extent to which women were
victimized by crime and their usage of medical services. Questions
used to measure criminal victimization were taken from the National
Crime Survey and focused on purse snatching, home burglary, attempted
robbery, robbery with force, threatened assault, and assault. In
addition, specific questions concerning rape and attempted rape were
developed for the study. Health status was assessed by using a number
of instruments, including the Cornell Medical Index, the Mental Health
Index, and the RAND Corporation test battery for their Health
Insurance Experiment. Medical service usage was assessed by reference
to medical records.

Response Rates:
For individuals contacted by telephone: 19
percent resulting in 194 interviews, including both victims and
nonvictims of crime. For individuals contacted by mail: 45 percent
resulting in 219 additional victims of crime. The two contact methods
yielded 413 interviews with complete data available for 390 of them.

Presence of Common Scales:
None.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:1994-01-04

Version History:

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 10 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 3 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.